Even though the writers have written it so Samuel seems to have manipulated Hiro to doin' what he wants, it's not like he doesn't have options.

I mean, maybe the storytellers don't choose this route, but couldn't Hiro just ask for a way back to the Carnival, and then do something other than what Sam wants? Knowin' the way back to the Carnival is kinda crucial, but if he gets that bit o' info, then I think it would be more in character for Hiro to decide to get things done his way instead of bein' manipulated by Sam.

Of course, he might not have a way of knowin' that Sylar has taken over Matt's body, but, to me, it makes sense that Hiro would go find Parkman('s body, at least) and ask him if he would go back with him to the Carnival and use his Jedi mind trick to extract the info from Samuel about where/when Charlie is, so that he can retrieve her. And then, that scenario would also provide a way for Gabe's consciousness to be in the same place as his body...

What do you think? Could that be a possible storyline?

Hiro could still do whatever Sam wants him to do (save Mo?), but havin' a back-up plan to find Charlie seems like something the writers should have him do...

Hmm good point, HERO. while I think that could possibly be where they are going I doubt it as well. Hiro is lovesick and just got Charlie back so I see him taking the lost puppy dog route and doing whatever he is told.

On the same note Matt is not really in charge so who's to say he would agree to go with him unless Hiro mentioned that "Sylar" was there. which to my knowledge Hiro is not aware of yet.

Hmm I'd say we will just have to wait and see because there is a lot of possibilities.

Well, yeah, he could have done that. But that would just not really be his style. Bargaining with Samuel into ''Saving Mohinder, then I'll tell you where/when your redhead girlfriend is'' sounds more like what Hiro would do. I mean, he did just bargained with Sylar to heal Charlie vs telling him how he died!

Teleporting to Matt and ask his help for a personnal matter... That doesn't look like Hiro.

Or Hiro could go back to the moment when Arnold and Samuel teleported Charlie to wherever.

If he stops then then he ends up with an extra hiro and 1 less Charlie, probably not what he wants. Although listening in on them might work.

Oh, good point! I suppose that that's like the cop-out, though, and not how tptb'll have Hiro do stuff, either, huh?

I dunno, but my thoughts at the end of that scene were that Hiro was just going to play along for now... he doesn't know that Mohinder is dead yet.

Another thought I had, though, was that Charlie's nametag was still laying on the ground for anyone to find... So perhaps Gabriel/Sylar/Nathan is going to find and touch it, giving him back some interesting memories from Charlie's point of view... That's how I'd play it out, but I'm not sure if that's what the writers have decided.

I give it 70% odds that clairsentience will be the answer, 20% odds that Hiro will time travel to discover the answer, 10% odds that both are done to find the answer. What's your take?

i don't know i have a feeling that edgar/lydia will find it out and tell hiro. They don't seem to be the kind of people to seperate hiro from his love.

Well, there's always the chance that the writers do just have Samuel tell Hiro where she is... Or, Samuel suffers some head injury and is unable to recall where Charlie is - the tragic ending would kinda fit better for Hiro's storyline...

Or, like byerly724 said, someone from the Carnival could take pity on the guy and find a way to tell him.

It just seemed like Hiro would be too ticked off, knowing that he could have a potential new life with Charlie, to not wanna find Matt and force Samuel to spill the beans... It makes sense (to me) that he'd wanna actively force Sam to tell than to do his bidding for the info - but still probably not what the writers would do, 'cuz that might shorten up his storyline if he went that route...

I just didn't buy why Hiro wouldn't go back and nab charlie before Samuel did.

Perhaps the carnie time traveller wouldn't get time frozen, and they'd be at a stalemate. On further reflection. Still it doesn't sit right.

If he went back in time to get her wouldn't he end up next to himself...and then if he went forward in time it would be in a timeline with multiple Hiros...or perhaps he goes forward into his own timeline bringing her with him :S

Do the writers have any solid view on what the physics of time travel are? I think that is the real question.

Hiro could grab Lydia an do the same thing to her....

Because it's impossible.
The only way to do that would be to freeze time and take her after he jumps back to the moment. Which sounds great.

Except that leaves the Hiro that was already there in the same situation he's in now. Someone grabbed Charlie away from him.

That would be weird. Hiro goes back to when Charlie was taken by Samuel, freezes time and takes her away to Otsu. Hiro would think she was abducted by Samuel's time guy. Samuel would think his time guy took her and since he died, he wouldn't know if he succeeded or not. Back in the present Hiro would disappear from the carnival and never come back.

Is Samuel's time guy laying in bed doing all this. Can he pluck people from other times without being there? If so, how does he even know what he's doing? How can he get a lock on them? If it turns out that Hiro and time travel guy can manipulate time while sleeping or in bed maybe that will turn out to be how Hiro time travelled accidently in earlier seasons. Some of his time jumps could have been caused by a Future Hiro.

Well, I don't think the writers would've allowed that to happen, but yeah theoretically Hiro COULD do that but there would be an extra Hiro running around, which would be the Hiro that Hiro had been. Truthfully, I really don't think the Heroes writers understand the multitude of theories on time travel.

They sort of make it up where they see fit, which is why, if you remember 'Five Years Gone' when Future Hiro (that ponytail guy with the katana we all miss) had just gotten back to the future, his present, after talking to Peter Petrelli on the subway saying "Save the cheerleader, save the world." he suddenly was the only Future Hiro there in an altered future when realistically there would have been a second Future Hiro still there who hadn't gone back to visit Peter in the past. Sort of uses Back to the Future logic in the sense Future Hiro had created an entirely new variant of his timeline just by visiting the Peter Petrelli of the past and thus a Future Hiro would exist in his place upon his return.

The answer is no, of course not. The Heroes writing staff can hardly get basic stuff right, you really think they have a coherent theory of time travel on the show??

Soooo, yeah (as a follow-up to the speculation in the original post), I was wrong about guessin' that Hiro could get info from Sam by usin' Matt, so I'll just point it out that that was silly of me to think of that option...

But we've now seen (since we've seen the eps up to Thanksgiving) that it doesn't take much for Hiro to get back to the Carnival (while before, for some reason, I thought that it was kinda more hidden and difficult to find), and he doesn't even need the special compass to do so, so the Master of Time and Space (Hiro, not Doctor Who) should trump Sam by just goin' back to stop Charlie's abduction.

I mean, the first Future Hiro told Peter that he was riskin' a rift in time and space just by bein' there to send the message, but, since that kinda precaution's been thrown to the wind, this Hiro should just go and stop Sam in the past. He's already goin' into the past for Sam and Lydia, so why not for himself?

Huh, that gives me another thing to add to that one list o' rules...